I didn't have to wait more than 30 minutes before the cash game started. Even though I was 13th on the list, as soon as they started calling the names, I went and sat down as if my name were called. In hindsight, it didn't matter anyways because once everybody sat down, there was still one seat open.

I bought in for $370 -- which was all I had in my pocket. Just like the tournament, I started out great and was immediately up almost $50 in the first hand. But also like the tournament, the cards immediately went cold, and I began a slow downward spiral draining my cash.

The game started out real loose -- and that's a problem for me. I tend to lose lots of $$$ against the loose and bad players, and I make $$$ against the better players; I don't know why, but that always seems to be true. These loose players were rivering me in numerous hands, or one or another various bad situations would arise that caused me to fold my hand after I had committed a bit of money. So the loose players take the money from me; they give it to other loose players; and I take the money from the other tight players. If it sounds like a losing proposition…it is.

But the loose players were a little too loose; as they were forced to re-buy multiple times until a few of them eventually went broke. At this point, I was down -$250 and I promised myself that I would leave the cash game if I didn't win at least one big pot before the big blind came to my position. Sure enough, it happend. The hand was a 1/2-kill ($15/30), and I was holding AKKJ single suited in the small blind. By the time the action came to me, 4 other players had called a raise and the pot was rather large. The flop was like magic: K73 rainbow. Perfect: no straight and no flush. My set of kings held up to split the high portion of $300+.

Over the next few hands, I started catching more cards. I scooped with Queens full, and a nut-nut flush + wheel. It doesn't get any better than that. I also took at least one more bad beat. I was dealt AAxx from the big blind, and I thought I'd be a little cagey when I didn't raise after four others had limped into the pot. After all, my raise from the BB isn't going to force any of them to fold, and there is virtually no likelihood that my aces can hold up in a 5-way flop -- so I just checked them. Regardless, I flopped top set of aces! So instead of playing cagey again, I immediately bet. The turn didn't pair the board (it was a king) and I bet again. The river however brought a flush draw -- of which I had the 67 of hearts. Everybody checked the river, and one of the stragglers announced that she had a baby flush. Sure enough, her 8-high beat my 7-high flush.

In the end, I still managed to scoop some pretty big pots. I played for approximately three hours. At one point I was down -$250 until I rallied back, and ended up +250 before I went home. Overall, I was very pleased...and had nothing to complain about.